Re: LYNX-DEV X-URL header field

[Foteos Macrides]

Uzi Paz <address@hidden> wrote:
>On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Al Gilman wrote:
>
>> to follow up on what Uzi Paz said:
>> > 
>> > It is generated both if you use "mailto:"; and then your description is
>> > fine, but also if you mail the web-page using the "Print" option, and then
>> > it describes the location of the fil, as in the case of
>> > "Content-Location:".
>> 
>> I agree.  On a "print" it would be appropriate to give the URL of
>> origin as Content-location.
>
>and I think that in this case X-URL should be replaced with
>Content-Location which has a clearer meaning (Perhaps in the next
>release?)

        Lou Montulli first implemented mailto, in the original,
HYPERREZ Lynx, for use with the 'c'omment command.  HYPERREZ
made much heavier use of LINK with REL/REV attributes than has
been the case with WWW HTML.  A <LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:To_value";>
was used to indicate the author(s) or maintainer(s) of the document,
and the scheme token was intended to communicate it's semantics:
"What follows the To: in mailTo: is any value that would be acceptible
in an email To: header -- including a comma-seperated list -- as
specified in RFC 822."  The X-URL: header was used to indicate the
URL of the document which contained the LINK with REV="made", preceded
with "X-" because their is no "URL" email header.  There was no
Content-Location header in those days, and I don't think it applies
to Lynx's handling of 'c'omment.  The rendered document is included
in the message with "angle bracket quoting", but that and the
comment added by the user do not correspond to what would be received
if the recipient of the message retrieved what is pointed to by the
X-URL: header value (i.e., it's a reference, not, actually, the message
content's location).

        Lynx also mails documents via its 'p'rint and 'd'ownload
options menus.  These two commands were, and still are, misnomers.
The so-call 'p'rint command invokes a menu of things the user can
do with the *rendered* document that was being displayed when the
command was issued.  The 'd'ownload command invokes a menu of things
the user can do with the source (new and unrendered retrieval of that
document).  BOTH menus can contain save-to-disk, mailing, printing,
and downloading (e.g., Kermit) options.  When mailing via the
'd'ownload menu, a Content-Location: header would be valid to include
(I think :).  In that case, Lynx presently includes a Content-Base:
together with the Content-Type: header if the latter is text/html,
so that partial and relative references in the source will be
resolved properly if the recipient renders it.  It also still uses
the Netscape hack of adding a BASE element at the top of the source
(i.e., "corrupts" it :), for the benefit of recipients which do
yet handle Content-Base: headers as intended.

        When a Lynx user toggles the display to source ('\') and
then invokes the 'p'rint menu, selection of the mailing option
will yield the same behavior with respect to headers (and the
BASE element hack) described above for mailing via the 'd'ownload
menu, but what gets mailed is not in fact the "source".  It is
a rendering of the document as if it were text/html bounded in
XMP.  I think a Content-Location header may be appropriate in
this special case, but I'm not certain.  I don't think there's
any uncertainty about the appropriateness of the Content-Base:
header, because it still indicates how to resolve any partial
or relative references.

        I've been following the discussions of the MHTML-WG,
but still don't feel confident about the intended meanings
and ramifications of the new headers.
 
                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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